8/21/2002 @ 12:01AM

The World's Best Pizza?

Peppe and his pizzaioli would like you to know that pizza is not an American invention. Deep-dish Chicago pies and New York slices are just aberrations from the true pizza, which he maintains is from Naples, Italy.

To this end, Peppe (known on his drivers license, and nowhere else, as
Giuseppe
Miele
Giuseppe Miele
), founded in 1988 the North American chapter of the
Associazione della Vera Pizza Napoletana
, or Verace Pizza Napoletana (“verace” is Neapolitan slang for authentic), or VPN. Originally created in 1984 in Naples with the help of the local chamber of commerce and the regional Italian government, this association certifies pizzerias that produce pizza adhering to a strict set of guidelines, supposedly based on Neapolitan tradition. Pizzaioli, trained pizza chefs, are sent out to restaurants to confirm their claims that they deserve the seal of approval from the VPN.

With sales for 2000-2001 close to $30 billion, pizza enjoys a big slice of the U.S. food industry. While 51.5% of those sales are by the top 25 chains, such as
Yum! Brand
‘s
Pizza Hut
, privately held
Domino’s
and
Papa John’s
, the rest are smaller chains and independent pizzerias.

Competition is stiff, and the turnover high. According to Pizza Marketing Quarterly, from July 2000 to July 2001, 3,547 pizza outlets closed down, but another 4,904 opened. Within such a huge market, Peppe says VPN offers pizzerias a way of distinguishing themselves from others by tapping into a fund of myth and tradition that surrounds the Neapolitan pizza.

He has a long way to go though. To date, only nine pizzerias in the U.S. have signed up with the VPN. And only one of those, La Pizza Fresca (“The Skeptical Chef“), is in New York City. In Italy, however, membership is higher, with over 50 in Naples and the surrounding area, as well as others scattered around the country. The association is dedicated to promoting Neapolitan pizza as the authentic and original pizza, through displaying the VPN logo, participating in fairs and competitions and, most importantly, by making pizza that abides by the rules they have laid down in their charter (“How To Make A Neapolitan Pizza“).

“There are different kinds of pizza,” admits
Tony
May
Tony May
, the owner of several Italian restaurants in New York and president of the
Gruppo Ristoratori Italiani
, an organization of food professionals working in the U.S. dedicated to promoting Italian cuisine. May says the VPN, which he supports, is just about not calling a pizza Neapolitan when it’s not. “Americans think pizza was invented in Chicago,” he lamented. He would like to see the VPN be more active in this country, he said, spreading the word about pizza’s origins and preserving the identity of Neapolitan pizza.

But what if the tradition being defined never really previously existed?
Robert
Sietsema
Robert Sietsema
, the Village Voice‘s food editor and restaurant critic, says, “The joke’s on them. Pizza was invented in the U.S.” The Italians are mounting a rearguard action, trying to claim pizza as their own, but it’s all a marketing ploy, he said. He says pizza as we know it was invented in New York, by Italian immigrants such as
Gennaro
Lombardi
Gennaro Lombardi
, whose pizzeria Lombardi’s, on Spring Street, opened in 1905. “I’m not a patriotic guy, except when it comes to pizza,” said Sietsema.

Pizza, as a flatbread with toppings, has been around since ancient Greek and Etruscan times. Whoever first thought of combining cheese and tomatoes is a person as obscure in history as the inventor of the wheel. There is a possibly apocryphal and much-repeated story about a Neapolitan chef,
Raffaele
Esposito
Raffaele Esposito
, who in 1889 created a red, white and green pizza (tomato, mozzarella and basil) for the Italian queen, Margherita, who liked it so much that it was named after her. What the VPN has done is take the legends and mix them with some traditions and come out with a marketing tool. “Authentic” and “traditional” sound good, and they allow the pizza place to buy into the myth of a Platonic ideal of pizza.

VPN clearly has its work cut out for it. In New York City, John’s Pizzeria is currently ranked No. 1 on Citysearch’s best pizza 2002 poll. La Pizza Fresca doesn’t even get a look in the top 20.
Michael
Frank
Michael Frank
, who’s managed John’s for the last eight years, hasn’t even heard of the VPN. He’s dismissive: “We’re not going to join some club. You donate $250, and they send you a plaque saying it’s New York’s best pizza. We get a lot of letters like that–maybe we got one from this organization.”

To join the Associazione della Vera Pizza Napoletana, you not only have to make Neapolitan pizza, there’s also the small matter of a fee: $200 for registration, yearly dues of $200 and $300 for the Verace Pizza sign, with a total due at sign-up of $700.

However, Peppe insists that joining is not as simple as just sending off some photos and $700. He says that other members also travel to the pizzerias to verify that they are adhering to the guidelines–not using oil in their dough, or, God forbid, a coal-fired oven. Consequently, expansion is going to be difficult for the VPN in the U.S.; Peppe said that as more members join, they would have to get local supervisors to check up on claims.

It could also be profitable. Peppe’s restaurant, Antica Pizzeria in Los Angeles, runs three-day training courses that cost $1,300 for chefs or restaurant owners who want to learn the art of Neapolitan pizza making without going to Naples.

The final word, however, goes to Victor, at the Brooklyn pizza institution Grimaldi’s, consistently rated No. 1 for pizza by the New York Zagats. I was trying to ask him what kind of pizza they made there–Neapolitan, Sicilian, Roman, or just New York. In a thick Italian accent, fed-up with my wasting his time with this foolishness, he broke in: “You don’t understand, it’s just pizza.”